The present invention generally relates to computer networking and, more particularly, is related to a system and method for providing efficient management of bandwidth between a small office, home office network and a wide area network.
With the advancement of technology, computer prices have decreased substantially. Such decreases in computer prices have enabled individual homeowners to possess two or more computers within their place of residence or home office. Therefore, communications and computer vendors focus on various forms of network solutions that allow multiple computers to interconnect, share files, share peripherals such as printers and scanners, and generally interoperate as a small network. Due to an increase in the number of computers within a household, the concept of computer networking within a home, otherwise known as small office, home office (SOHO) networking has emerged as a new networking medium, outside of basic computer networking, which sets forth new complications and considerations to be addressed by equipment manufacturers and vendors.
Regardless of the technique used to provide local communication within a SOHO network environment, which may consist of the installed local telephone wiring only, care must be taken when injecting energy onto the existing wiring inside of a typical SOHO network. Specifically, the energy level used by the SOHO network should be large enough to allow reliable communications between local nodes without interfering with other devices such as telephones or other data services. Similarly, the spectrum of SOHO network signals should be selected to avoid interference with other services and technologies.
With the introduction of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology new methods of addressing bandwidth limitations within a broadband network have been introduced. Typically, within a bandwidth spectrum, a voice band, a data band, and a local communication band are allocated and fixed prior to initiation of the SOHO network. As known in the art, the voice band relates to the transmission of voice conversations by plain old telephone services (POTS); the data band relates to the transmission of data either, from the SOHO network to a central office (upstream) located within a wide area network (WAN), or from the central office to the SOHO network (downstream); and the local communication band relates to the transmission of data within the SOHO network.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, such as ADSL, were designed to operate with splitters where the splitters keep high frequency DSL information out of POTS circuits. There are a number of reasons why it is necessary to keep high frequency DSL information out of POTS circuits, such as, but not limited to, the impact that certain non-linear devices contained within the POTS devices can have on DSL signals. Specifically, it is possible that these signals can be xe2x80x9cdemodulated or downconvertedxe2x80x9d to signals that reside in the voice band thus resulting in decreased POTS performance (noise). G.LITE, a slower version of full rate DSL, was designed to operate without splitters. Further, a compromise splitter known as a micro data filter (MDF), may be used. The MDF is connected in series with POTS devices and is essentially, a xe2x80x9cdistributed splitter,xe2x80x9d wherein it allows offending devices to be xe2x80x9celectrically removedxe2x80x9d from the network.
Unfortunately, while a vast amount of fixed bandwidth is allocated for data transfer within the data band, and a small fixed bandwidth is allocated for local communication within the bandwidth spectrum, use of the data band and local band fluctuates in accordance with bandwidth needs associated with the SOHO network. Therefore, when data communication from the SOHO network to the WAN is minimal, resulting in minimal use of the fixed bandwidth spectrum allocated for such communication, the fixed bandwidth allocated for the data band is essentially wasted.
An example of a situation in which communication from the SOHO network to the WAN may be minimal includes, but is not limited to, evening hours when computers within a SOHO network may be automatically backing up files over a local area network (LAN), thus requiring additional local band bandwidth and no data band bandwidth. Alternatively, during normal working hours, employees may require additional data band bandwidth for various Internet activities.
Further, since there are bandwidth limitations within both the data band and the local band, increases in local communication traffic slow communication between other local nodes as the fixed bandwidth in the local network becomes totally utilized. In a network with a fixed allocation of bandwidth, the saturation of the Local network will happen regardless of the utilization of the data band spectrum. Therefore, it is desirable to allow networks to dynamically allocate bandwidth as necessary by using a mechanism such as G.HS.
In light of the foregoing, the present invention provides a system and method for providing bandwidth management within a SOHO network for the efficient transmission of information associated with the SOHO network.
Generally, the system modifies the spectrum allocation for ADSL and LAN signals in accordance with bandwidth requirements of the SOHO network for communication within the SOHO network and with a WAN. After initiation of modems within the SOHO network, a handshake procedure, such as G.HS, is performed between the SOHO network and a central office (CO) located within the WAN. During the handshake procedure the SOHO network discloses bandwidth requirements for the SOHO network to perform local communication between LANs. The CO then informs the SOHO network as to whether LANs within the SOHO network can increase the bandwidth used for local communication. The SOHO network may also be informed to decrease bandwidth used for local communication so that bandwidth used for communication between the SOHO network and the WAN may be increased. The combination of these two scenarios assures that maximum bandwidth allocation is provided in accordance with bandwidth need.
The invention has numerous advantages, a few of which are delineated hereafter as examples. Note that the embodiments of the invention, which are described herein, possess one or more, but not necessarily all, of the advantages set out hereafter. One advantage of the invention is that the bandwidth management system provides an efficient means of maximizing SOHO network performance.
Another advantage is that the invention can relocate transmissions in the LAN to minimize interference with other services, thereby providing flexibility for future unanticipated devices, and allowing a proprietary network to operate without regard to the same spectral allocation rules required in a PSTN.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one of reasonable skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the present invention as described by the claims.